Another Strike Looms In Varsities

Amid the ongoing strike by university teachers across the country, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) may embark on an industrial action following the Federal Government’s failure to fulfil its 10-year agreement with the union over the welfare of its members.

National Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the union, Abdulsobru Salawu, disclosed this at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) during a protest.

Salawu said, “Another industrial action is looming in the nation’s universities if government fails to adhere to the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2009 with SSANU”.

Members of the union, during the protest, displayed placards with inscriptions such as, ‘Government, reinstate staff school teachers now,’ ‘Government, pay us our earned allowances’, ‘Earned allowances are part of our salary, FGN pay our salary’, ‘SSANU says no to injustice in staff schools’, ‘FG, pay our N8b earned allowances’.

Salawu said government as the custodian of the rule of law had failed to uphold the institution.

He lamented that the FG reneged on the promises it made to the union last year, attributing the situation to the insensitivity of the political class.

“There were over four Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) that were not honoured”, the PRO lamented.

The SSANU spokesman decried what he called the non-adherence to the judgment delivered by the National Industrial Court in December 2016, ordering universities to reabsorb staff schools.

“As at the middle of last year, the Federal Government assured us that it had released N8billion to be disbursed to all non-teaching staff unions in the university system. But as we speak, up till today, no such disbursement has been made.

“On our renegotiation with the Babalakin Committee, we want to say that we are disappointed and hereby express our disenchantment with the pace of negotiation by the Federal Government team”.